After losing the Ashes, Ponting found a new way to make the news, he called it quits with Twenty20. A few weeks back Kambli shocked us with his retirement from international cricket. And then Freddie and Vaas retired from test cricket. Earlier Murali put together a retirement plan for the not so distant future.

Frankly, Saurav Ganguly is the guy who started it. He appeared late at the toss and early for his pension.

Also, as it’s unlikely that Ponting will get any T20 breaks, this was the way to go. He looks forward to play with the Kolkata Knight Riders – yeah right, as if they’ll let him. Carrying drinks however, cannot be ruled out.

One conspiracy theory is this: Ponting was targeted by the BCCI and the IPL, and it was a done deal to buy him for less, so he went for loose change, about the same as the under 19s, give or take a few thousand dollars.

And thus Ricky’s downfall was plotted. Nowadays his favourite song is Free Falling. He can be very petty you know.